AVENGERS #387 & CAPTAIN AMERICA #440

"ISLAND OF SPIRITS"
Story: Bob Harras & Terry Kavanagh | Writer: Bob Harras
Breakdowns: Mike Deodato | Finishes: Tom Palmer
Colorist: John Kalisz | Letterer: Bill Oakley
Editor: Ralph Macchio | Editor-in-Chief: Mark Gruenwald

The Plot: CAPTAIN AMERICA #440: "Dawn's Early Light" by Mark Gruenwald, Dave Hoover, and Marie Severin, Dan Bulandi, & Don Hudson: Captain America tries to recruit his old friend, Demolition Man, for a mission to the island of Boca Caliente, but D-Man is unable to attend. Later, Cap meets up with his team -- his trainees, Jack Flag and Free Spirit, his former partner, the Falcon, his pilot, Zack Moonhunter, and his tech expert, Fabian Stankowicz. The group receives a briefing from Nick Fury on an energy surge from Boca Caliente which read to SHIELD as similar to the Cosmic Cube. Then Fury departs, and Cap's team heads out. On Boca Caliente, A.I.M. operative MODAM enters a chamber bathed with energy. Meanwhile, Cap's enemy Superia and her right hand, Snapdragon, observe Boca Caliente from a boat offshore.

Captain America, Falcon, Jack Flag, and Free Spirit swim to Boca Caliente and split up. At Avengers Mansion, Black Widow says that the readings Captain America recently went to investigate on Boca Caliente are identical to those she recently tracked in Canada, and the heroes depart to catch up with Cap. On the island, Jack Flag and Free Spirit witness the arrival of the Red Skull, who takes out two guards and enters A.I.M.'s complex. A moment later, the guards rise and metamorph, revealing themselves to be A.I.M. Adaptoids, and attack Jack and Free Spirit. On the island's beach, Fabian activates a small army of robots and sends them out to create a diversion. Meanwhile, Cap and Falcon find a deep crater, and Cap jumps toward it just as an energy flare emerges, separating him from Falcon. As Falcon searches for Cap, he is attacked by another Adaptoid. Meanwhile, Cap lays paralyzed until Superia finds him and injects something into his cheek.

AVENGERS #440: A young boy on Boca Caliente finds Captain America, out of his armor, laying on the ground. Cap gets up, and Bucky appears to greet him. Meanwhile, the Avengers have arrived on the island and engaged with A.I.M. troops. They rout the villains, and Black Widow reveals the readings she's been tracking recently are those of a Cosmic Cube. A moment later, Quicksilver's thoughts come to life thanks to the Cube energy, and the Avengers find themselves in the camp where he grew up, with his foster father, Django Maximoff, welcoming them. Meanwhile, Bucky helps Captain America fight off some A.I.M. agents. Inside the A.I.M. complex, the Red Skull stalks the agent in command, Brannex. Outside, two Adaptoids battle and defeat Jack Flag and Free Spirit. Elswehwere, the Avengers sit around a campfire with Django. Meanwhile, Cap, Bucky, and the boy find Falcon and his Adaptoid foe both unconscious. Cap suddenly weakens, and then a moment later A.I.M. operative MODOK arrives.

PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #54

"TO SAVE THE SMUGGLER!"
Words: Roger Stern | Plot & Pictures: Marie Severin | Inks: Jim Mooney
Letters: Jim Novak | Colorist: Ben Sean | Scrutiny: Dennis O'Neil
Medic: Jim Shooter

The Plot: Spider-Man stops a car chasing an ambulance, but learns that the car contains police officers while the ambulance, transporting a witness, was hijacked by criminals. The web-slinger catches up with the ambulance, but the criminals escape, distracting our hero by way of attempting to knock a marquee onto nearby civilians. The web-slinger finds that one of the villains dropped a matchbook from a restaurant called the Chrysanthemum and the Sword, then heads to a nearby police precinct, where he learns that the kidnapped witness is the Smuggler.

Later, after spending the day at Empire State University as Peter Parker, Spider-Man heads to the restaurant, aboard a boat in New York Harbor, to investigate. He finds the Smuggler tied up below decks and frees him. They fight their way out together past the restaurant's samurai guards, but the Smuggler is shot in the escape. Spider-Man rescues him just as the police arrive. The restaurant's owner demands that the authorities arrest the webbed wonder for terrorizing their establishment, but Spider-Man exposes the place as a drug-smuggling front, using patrons' doggie bags to get the goods into New York. The wall-crawler is cleared by the police and the Smuggler taken back into custody.

PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #51

"ALIENS AND ILLUSIONS!"
Writer: Roger Stern | Artists: Marie Severin & Jim Mooney
Letterer: Jim Novak | Colorist: Christie Scheele | Editor: Denny O'Neil
Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter

The Plot: The aliens bring Peter Parker before Mysterio, who straps him into a machine which uses a combination of nausea-inducement and holography in an attempt to make him reveal the location of Dutch Mallone's loot. But Peter feigns passing out, so the aliens stick him a cell while Mysterio forumulates a new plan. He sends the aliens to the Restwell Nursing Home to kidnap Debra Whitman, who has just finished giving a statement on Peter's abduction to the police.

Meanwhile, Peter changes into Spider-Man and escapes from his cell to explore the aliens' "spaceship". He soon realizes the whole place is merely an elaborate set, and the aliens themselves are men in disguise. When our hero sees that Mysterio has Debra as his prisoner, he uses Mysterio's own technology to confuse the villain with holograms. Debra escapes her captor and Spider-Man swings in to finish off Mysterio and the "aliens". He then returns to his cell and changes back into Peter Parker just in time for Debra to release him.

PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #48

"DOUBLE DEFEAT!"
Writer: Roger Stern | Penciler: Marie Severin | Inker: Bruce Patterson
Letterer: Rick Parker | Colorist: Ben Sean | Editor: Denny O'Neil
Funeral Arranger: Jim Shooter

The Plot: Spider-Man manages to smash his way out of Belladonna's trap, but finds that she is not on the other side of the glass porthole as he had believed -- it was only a video screen with which he was speaking. The Prowler attempts to kill Spider-Man, but Belladonna's monitor explodes, wounding the villain. Spider-Man turns the Prowler over to the police and heads home. Soon after, the Prowler escapes from Bellevue Hospital and sets out to find Belladonna.

The next day, Peter Parker heads to a property manager's office and learns that the loft where Belladonna's trap was set is leased to Desiree Vaughn-Pope. Spider-Man heads to Desiree's apartment but finds her sister Narda in residence instead. After he explains to Narda that he believes her sister to be Belladonna, Narda tells the web-slinger that Desiree is on her way to Roderick Kingsley's office for a meeting. Worried that Belladonna will strike again, Spider-Man departs immediately.

However as soon as he has left, Narda reveals that she is actually Belladonna, and calls Kingsley to tell him Spider-Man has joined forces with her and is en route to kill him. She then orders her men to meet her at their hideout for a new assignment. Spider-Man soon drops into Kingsley's loft, and the forewarned designer guns him down. Meanwhile, Narda heads for her hideout, but is trailed by the Prowler. She attempts to pay him off, but he prepares to kill her anyway before escaping with her money. Spider-Man arrives and saves her, having used a dummy in a fake costume to trick Kingsley, then takes out her men when they arrive moments later. Narda and the Prowler are arrested and Spider-Man departs, considering that perhaps he's actually won for a change.

PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #47

"A NIGHT ON THE PROWL!"
Writer: Roger Stern | Penciler: Marie Severin
Inks & Letters: Bruce Patterson | Colorist: Glynis Wein
Editor: Dennis O'Neil | Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter

The Plot: Peter Parker is out with Deb Whitman when he sees a news report implicating Spider-Man in a robbery/murder at a luxury apartment in the Powers Arms apartment building. After seeing Deb off, Peter heads to the scene of the crime. Using his Daily Globe press credentials to get in, he learns that the burglar surprised the apartment's owner and killed her bodyguard as he escaped. The police find webbing on the roof, the remnants of Peter's makeshift backpack left only moments before when he arrived at the building, leading them to further believe Spider-Man's guilt.

Peter, however, thinks the clues add up to his one-time rival, the Prowler, and heads to the apartment of Hobie Brown, the man behind the Prowler's mask. But Hobie declares he has sworn off costumed activity. He tries to show Spider-Man that he has mothballed his outfit and gear, but his storage locker has been robbed. The next night, realizing a new Prowler is on the loose, Spider-Man combs the city in search of his quarry. He soon falls into a trap in the garment district, where the new Prowler lures the web-slinger into a sealed, gas-filled room prepared by his employer, Belladonna -- who promptly closes the door on both Spider-Man and Prowler.

PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #45

"WINGS OF FIRE, WINGS OF FEAR"
Writer: Roger Stern | Penciler: Marie Severin | Inker: Steve Mitchell
Letterer: Michael Higgins | Colorist: Glynis Wein | Editor: Dennis O'Neil
Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter

The Plot: Spider-Man manages to escape from his coffin after it has left the sight of the Vulture and his men. While Vulture leads a toast to celebrate the web-slinger's demise, Black Alfred shows up. Knowing that Alfred has been conspiring against him, the Vulture smacks him around a bit, until Spider-Man crashes back into the room, still chained up. Vulture grabs Malachai and retreats, and Black Alfred makes a run for it as well -- but Spider-Man and the remaining mobsters are trapped in the building, now set ablaze by the furnace following the wall-crawler's escape.

Spider-Man snaps his chains and leads the criminals to safety, webbing them to a lamppost outside. Black Alfred, meanwhile, sneaks up on the Vulture and Malachai in an alleyway and guns down the Vulture's nephew. Vulture flies into a vengeful rage, but Spider-Man rescues Black Alfred from a fatal beating. Spidey and the Vulture take their battle airborne while the police arrive to arrest Black Alfred.

Vulture carries Spider-Man across the city and the fight eventually ends in Grand Central Station, where the Vulture knocks himself out by flying into a window while attempting escape. The authorities take the Vulture into custody while Spider-Man heads to the Daily Globe for the street clothes he had stashed there earlier, and changes back to Peter Parker.